A record and a movie which are taking way too long to finish!

The Record:

Daft Punk - Untitled fourth album

Ever since the release of Human After All in 2005 fans of electronic music have been craving for a fourth album, this particular craving however is a rather odd one. Sure, Daft Punk did create the electronic music genre as we know it today, along with Jean Michel Jarre and Kraftwerk, but on a basic technical level a typical Daft Punk song isn't not very advanced.

The single for the Tron: Legacy soundtrack

So why the craving? Well, for starters people have over time completely fallen for Daft Punks sense of theatre and drama and the robot costumes are at least partially to blame for insane popularity. On a musical level, Daft Punk have become the target of electronic nostalgia. An electronic project that people look upon with great fondness because of the simplicity and style. So where the hell is the album? Well for starters the album has been heavily rumoured for years and o.n the 8th of February a famous funk/disco producer called Nile Rodgers was quoted saying: “Those guys are great. They’re coming to my apartment on Monday and we’re going to talk about making a new record together.” This created even more stir so if this worth anything, it's pretty indicative that the album is in the pipelines.

The Movie:

The Bioshock Movie

In 2008 Take Two announced a deal with Universal Studios to bring Bioshock to the big screen and with Gore Verbinski as director and John Logan writing the script, things seemed promising. I have always considered Bioshock a franchise that would translate to the big screen more easily since the gameplay never was as strong as the story and heavily symbolic surroundings.

An interview with Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

However, some time passed with no news regarding the progress of either the script or potential members being rumoured or announced. The project lost Gore Verbinski as director and was replaced by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Gore Verbinski was then attached as a producer and was quoted saying that the movie would be a "hard R". This put the studio producing the movie off and the movie's future is currently uncertain. With the right director on the project and if it contains its R rating to preserve artistic freedom and to remain loyal to its pretty mature source material, the movie could end bing the video game adaption which could pave the way for other movie friendly franchises.

So what do you guys think? Are there any movies or records you've been waiting anxiously for?

Review Roundup -I'm addicted to media, not just games. I come from a family of musicians, filmmakers and artists and the interest in these subjects have defined me. The problem is that music, games, movies and comics come out so fast that it's nearlyimpossible to keep track of it all. I've decided to do a Review Roundup from time to time where I pick one of each and review it with a little numbered score. Some of the things I review might be brand new or ancient. Sometimes each typeof media are represented and sometime only one type makes the cut. Hopefully you guys will find it interesting!

Ifan Dafydd - Treehouse EP

Electronica are experiencing a renaissance these days. Danish artist Trentemøller
started the evolution with his album The Last Resort and lately British artist
James Blake managed to fuse Electronica components with soul elements to
create a masterpiece of an album. Ifan Dafydd created a stir with his debut EP
Treehouse and was accused of being too like James Blake.

Surely Ifan and James Blake share the same views on song-deconstruction which a
basic technique in which the artist creates a basic tune and lyrics and then
completely deconstructs and then puts in back together. This of course shows
throughout the 2 tracks on the EP but the accusation of direct plagiarism
becomes more and more absurd, the more you start analyse each musical
component in both tracks.

The more symphonic approach and different rhythm schemes pays off for Ifan
Dafydd and with the Treehouse EP he manages to establish himself as a serious
musician because the just as James Blake every single sound is so polished and
thoroughly though through that it's a joy to listen to.

9/10

Dark Knight Rises

There is a fundamental joy of having huge expectations met. And with the movie
industry filled with sequels the chances of having expectations met become
decreasingly likely, Christopher Nolans Batman trilogy stand out as an amazing
piece of art that could go down in movie history as the best representation of
the character but most importantly one of the best representation of movie
sequels along with Lord of the Rings, the old Star Wars trilogy among others.

Awesome does not cut it this time around

The bar was set as high as it could ever be with The Dark Knight. How could The
Dark Knight Rises ever live up to the tremendous amount of hype? Well, for
starters the movie is amazingly well crafted on a basic cinematic level. And despite
the character roster being very large and increasingly expanding during the
course of the movie each character gets its turn and adds to the overall
experience and plot.

Of course the movie also suffers a tiny bit from the weight of its grandeur.
Everything is bigger and this especially shows on the musical side of things where
Hans Zimmers bombastic score are too powerful and adrenalin infusing to
reciprocate what happens on screen. This, should keep the movie from being
perfect, like when Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear UK describes the Lancia
Stratos: "It's not perfect... But then you look at it, cause it just sort of is".
And The Dark Knight Rises is sort of perfect. Everything you could ever want
from a Batman movie, everything you could ever want from a superhero movie
and most certainly everything you could ever want from an action movie.

10/10

Superman: Confidential

To me, Superman has always had more to prove as a character other than Batman which is my preferred comic book hero. Batman is gritty and noir like and generally contains much darker and realistic themes. Superman seems more lighthearted and stereotypical however the Superman comic does have one ace up its sleeve: The way Clark Kent is Supermans reflection of humanity. The way he sees us as a species is a way more interesting than the stereotypical storylines that offen plague Superman comicbooks. Confidential explores the more human themes of Superman which creates a greater contrast and therefore greater ressonance between the superhuman and his week human reflection of us.

The drawings are stellar and are somewhat similar to the Batman: The Long Halloween and The Dark Victory which perfectly encapsulates Supermans strength but also his weaknesses. The relationship between Superman and Lois Lane also plays a prominent role here and perfectly sets the tone on each page. This comicbook does not completely escape the somewhat mundane problems that often plagues the character but books like Confidential should get more recognition than in currently does and i hope that some of the themes and tones of the comic is being used as inspiration for the upcoming Zack Snyder directed, Christopher Nolan produced big screen return of the Man of Steel